Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Proposition 8: How can an attack on your family NOT be personal?

I've always been stunned by how anti-equality forces like to argue that their attacks on marriage aren't personal. I've seen this happen in state after state, and I've come to believe that they will continue to win until we can convince voters of the truth -- that marriage bans hurt people. Bans hurt families and children. Nowhere is that more clear than in California where Proposition 8 would eliminate a right that already exists.

A gay man in California makes the case vividly to a Yes on Prop 8 volunteer he encountered in a supermarket parking lot. He blogged about the encounter.

“Don’t take it personally?! Don’t take it PERSONALLY?!” I nearly yelled back, “This amendment you are pushing will strip the rights and protections of MY family, how can I not take that personally!?”

5 comments:

Thanks for the support, reuven, although I have to say that I'm a little worried about the web site you linked. I appreciate anyone campaigning for people to vote no on Prop 8, but that site seems to argue that the reason to vote no is that Mormons are supporting the proposition, as if Mormon were equivalent to something awful. I have many disagreements with Mormons, but this site -- on an admittedly very quick reading -- appears to be stepping close to promoting a kind of Mormon hate.

There are some very real differences between the belief system of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and conservative/evangelical Christianity, but those differences don't really mean much to people outside one or the other.For example, there are serious differences about the nature of Christ, the role and status of women, the afterlife, how salvation is accomplished, eschatology, and other areas that have no reference points in the secular world. To a conservative evangelical, these are serious disagreements that mean the difference between going to heaven or spending an eternity in the Bad Place. If you don't actually believe in the Bad Place, it's easy to see the two religions as more or less equivalent. What you're mistaking for "a kind of Mormon hate" is a disagreement on questions of verifiable fact, albeit fact that is neither verifiable nor even meaningful to people who are neither Mormons or conservative evangelicals. Veering off into the larger context, disagreement over facts does not necessarily equal hate.

Thanks for the comment, Pavian. I do understand about the differences in theology between the two groups. Personally, I have very real and large differences with both evangelicals and Mormons on theology, but there was something that felt not quite right to me about that site.

Since I can't seem to explain it very well, I will simply note that it made my gut feel a tad uneasy and leave it at that. On the other hand, I am so pleased to see people working against Prop 8. That's a hideous proposition that will hurt many, many people and many children.

Let me propose a hypothetical to see if we can get some perspective on the question posed by reuven's web site.Say you're car is on fire in an otherwise empty parking lot. As you realize that you can't get back into the car to retrieve your cell phone, Fred Phelps pulls up in his pickup truck and offers to call 9-1-1 on his cell phone. Your car is on fire. Fred Phelps is the only one in sight, and he offers to help. What do you do?

I offer no resolution, except to suggest that it'd be a tough call. I probably wouldn't accept money from the government of Saudi Arabia to get a prohibition initiative on the ballot, even though Southern Baptists and Muslims alike abstain (at least in priciple) from alcoholic beverages. But then, neither would I be throwing rocks through the windshields in the mosque parking lot.